Category: News

A Sparta lady affirms she was determined to have mesothelioma in light of presentation to asbestos amid her profession.

Glenda Smith and Robert Smith recorded an objection on Jan. 12 in the St. Clair County Circuit Court against ABB Inc., Aurora Pump Co., Borg-Warner Morse Tec LLC, et al. claiming carelessness.

As indicated by the objection, the offended parties claim that in the vicinity of 1978 and 1993, Glenda Smith was presented to asbestos amid her vocation from items she was working with or around that were purportedly fabricated by the litigants. She additionally affirms she was optionally presented to asbestos containing items through her dad, who worked for quite a while as a worker at Cole Milling Co., and from her uncles.

Therefore, the suit states Glenda Smith ended up noticeably mindful that she had created mesothelioma on Nov. 30, 2016.

The offended parties charge the respondents neglected to give any or sufficient notices to people working with or around the results of the threats of breathing in, ingesting or generally retaining the asbestos filaments contained in them and included asbestos strands in items when satisfactory substitutes were accessible.

The offended parties look for judgment for a total of more than $50,000, which will decently and sensibly adjust for the wounds. They are spoken to by Randy L. Gori of Gori, Julian and Associates PC in Edwardsville.

Illinois State Beach attracts approximately 2 to 3 million visitors a year, but according to a report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), each and every one of those visitors could be putting themselves at risk for asbestos exposure.

According to a report on NBC-5 Chicago, asbestos was first discovered on the beach 10 years ago and the EPA still questions “the safety of human use of the beaches.” However, state and federal regulators say the beach is safe and admit to knowing little about outdoor exposure to asbestos.

In an interview with Jeff Camplin, a local health and safety expert, Camplin told reporter Carol Marin that the most dangerous form of asbestos amphibole has been found on the beach and in a number of air samples over the last decade.

Signs are posted at various spots on the beach, warning swimmers and sunbathers of ACM Asbestos Containing Material. Still, families come in droves to enjoy the beach, but not without anxiety.

The cause? More than likely it’s the old Johns-Manville plant at the south end of the park. Though it’s been empty for quite some time, for seven decades it produced a variety of asbestos-containing products. It’s now a designated EPA Superfund Site. Other potential sources include old demolished homes along the beachfront, most of which were built using asbestos-containing products.

Other beaches where asbestos has been found include Oak Street Beach, by far the city’s most popular beach, packed with wall-to-wall people on pleasant summer weekends.

Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its intention to conduct a second test of asbestos removal Saturday at Fort Chaffee, using a newly-developed alternative method for abatement.

According to an article in the Arkansas Times-Record, this test and the ones previously conducted could result in the approval of a method that would “result in significant cost-reductions for asbestos removal around the country.

The first test, conducted in April 2006, involved two buildings at Fort Chaffee on which two different abatement methods were used: the current National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) method on one building and the new Alternative Asbestos Control Method (AACM) on another.

When test results were released, the figures showed the AACM process cut costs by half, was five times faster, and also decreased hazardous risks to workers.

With the new process, no material is removed from the structure, explains the article. Instead, amended water a sort of chemical foam much like dish washing detergent – is mixed in with water from a hydrant and sprayed outside and inside the structure.

The next day, the building is demolished while, at the same time, being sprayed with the amended water. About 3 inches of topsoil, along with the demolished structure, is then taken to a designated landfill that accepts asbestos-containing material.

David Gray, director of the EPA’s office of external affairs in Dallas, said that the completion of a second test to determine what other asbestos-containing materials can be removed safely using the process is key to getting the new method included in the EPA regulations.

The second test will involve transite materials, says Gray, such as asbestos-containing shingles and siding. The EPA will also erect a white plastic sheet behind the structure to find if it can block some of the debris from reaching buildings that could be near demolition sites, such as in a residential area.

A recent Washington State Court of Appeals decision has paved the way for claims to be filed on behalf of individuals exposed to deadly asbestos fibers brought into the home by family members who worked with the deadly material. The decision overturned a lower court ruling and set a precedent that could allow hundreds of these family members and others living in the same home as exposed workers to file their own claims, notes a press release on PR Web.

“For decades, people working with or around asbestos products brought deadly fibers home on their clothing, thereby exposing their families to cancerous materials,” explains Seattle attorney Matthew Bergman. “Until now it has been very difficult for individuals who develop asbestos-related diseases as a result of household exposures to pursue a claim against the employer, even though the hazards of asbestos were well documented by the early 1950s. This ruling gives new hope to family members suffering from diseases caused by asbestos exposure.”

“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t wish I could go back and change things,” says Lawrence Rochon, whose wife Adeline was diagnosed with mesothelioma in November 2004 and passed away soon after. “My wife was a wonderful woman who took pride in caring for her family. She didn’t deserve to die in such a horrible way.”

Adeline Rochon was exposed to asbestos brought home on the clothes of her husband, who was a long time employee at Scott Paper Mill in Everett, WA. It is believed that the process of shaking out and washing her husband’s work clothes caused Mrs. Rochon to inhale deadly fibers.

Kimberly Clark, who acquired Scott Paper in 1996, had successfully argued in Snohomish County Superior Court that it had no duty of care to Mrs. Rochon because the potential for harm was not foreseeable, notes court records. The Washington State Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling. Judge J. Cox wrote in the decision, “Kimberly Clark had a duty to prevent injury from an unreasonable risk of harm it had itself created.”

For decades, thousands upon thousands of Washington residents were employed in industries that used asbestos on a regular basis before asbestos warnings were issued in the mid-1970s, including the shipbuilding, paper, aluminum, and wood products industries. The state has the second-highest rate of asbestos-caused cancer in the nation.

Demolition workers who’ve been tearing down trailers to make room for new homes near the former Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora, Colorado report that the site is riddled with asbestos and they fear that their health has been compromised.

According to a story on KWGN News Denver, workers doing the demolition say they were exposed to the asbestos and never warned of its presence. One former resident of the mobile home park told news reporters that he was worried about asbestos in the trailers even before the demolition began. Now workers say the pile of debris that currently sits at the site has been definitely confirmed to contain asbestos.

“Everybody that’s ever worked here, been around this site, even been on the property, has been exposed to it,” said former worker Leo Wiegand, “The only real thing we’re trying to get people to realize is, it’s a contamination to breathe.”

But the supervisor for the contractor doing the demolition work says there’s no need to worry. “There is asbestos in there,” said Brad Lundy, “Very little–it’s only on the flooring. As far as airborne, nobody’s exposed to it.”

A local Health Department expert says they are “actively investigating whether any employees may have been exposed” at the site, but believes there is “absolutely no danger” to the public from any asbestos found at the site.

In the meantime, demolition work at the site has been suspended until a plan to remove the debris is finalized.

A 66-year-old Oregon woman who owned two small ceramics teaching and manufacturing businesses has received an award of $5.6 million in a suit against several talc mining companies.

Linda O’Donnell operated her businesses from 1973 until 1993 and was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma last year, allegedly caused by the inhalation of asbestos-containing talc products used at her ceramics studio. The contaminated talcs were mined by various companies in Death Valley, California, where asbestos was a common contaminant in the commercially mined talc deposits, says a press release by the law firm that represented O’Donnell and her husband in the proceedings.

Expert witnesses testified that the Death Valley talcs used by Mrs. O’Donnell “invariably contained a small percentage of tremolite asbestos,” a form of asbestos known to be extremely carcinogenic. Documents obtained from the talc mining companies showed that they were aware of their asbestos problem in the early 70s, and that they regularly tested their talc to monitor its asbestos content yet continued to sell the talc to companies that would include it in products sold to consumers.

The press release explains that “the talcs were mixed with dry clay and water to form ‘ceramic slip,’ a liquid clay mixture that was poured into molds to dry. The talc used in the slip usually came in 50 pound sacks, which were dumped into a hopper for mixing, creating clouds of dust and intense asbestos exposures. After the dried ceramic figures were removed from molds, they were sanded to prepare them for glazing and firing, resulting in additional exposure to asbestos dust.”

Mrs. O’Donnell, her lawyers say, engaged in these activities on a daily basis throughout her ceramics career, which lasted about 20 years.

According to an article in Reuters Health, high doses of a new drug called Vinflunine, a novel microtubule inhibitor, has been shown to provide encouraging response and survival rates in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Results of a clinical trial involving vinflunine were recently published in the October 20th edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The overall response rate, as assessed by an independent radiologist, was 13.8% (all partial responses), the authors report, and most patients either maintained (60%) or improved (13.8%) their baseline Karnofsky performance status.

The median progression-free survival was 3.2 months; the median overall survival was 10.8 months and the 1-year survival rate was 36.9%. Only 10% of cycles had to be delayed because of hematologic toxicity, non-study-drug-related adverse event, or other reasons, the report indicates.

“These results suggest that vinflunine is among the most active single agents in malignant pleural mesothelioma,” the authors conclude.

“The results of our study, in terms of response rate and survival, suggest that vinflunine should be further evaluated in malignant pleural mesothelioma after progression with cisplatin/pemetrexed because no other therapy is available in this setting,” the researchers added.

The state of Montana has allocated an additional $1.5 million for the victims of asbestos diseases in the asbestos-ridden town of Libby, where hundreds of individuals have been sickened or have died due to exposure to the toxic mineral.

According to a story reported by a CBS affiliate in Kalispell, Montana, Governor Brian Schweitzer presented the Lincoln County Board of Health with a check for the full amount on Wednesday and also spoke with the board of directors at Libby’s Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD) about their goals for the future and his continued plan to help Libby’s many asbestos victims.

The governor stated his hope that the extra money would help ease the pressure on those who are dealing with an asbestos-related disease by assisting with their medical bills and other expenses that often become overwhelming when someone is terminally ill.

Leroy Thorn, director of the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, says he hopes that extra funding will also be available specifically for the center, which was established a few years ago to help care for the hundreds of asbestos victims in this small town, where dozens upon dozens of residents worked for the W.R. Grace Company, whose vermiculite mine was contaminated with asbestos.

“We’re just on a month to month basis. We are a fee for service non-profit organization and it’s just tough. I mean, I look at how our staff does the budget every month and you know it is, it’s month to month,” Thorn told the media.

With the “experimental” demolition of a Fort Worth (TX) apartment scheduled for this Thursday, environmental activists and a number of experts are still unsure about the safety of the new method being used to tear down buildings that are laden with asbestos.

Despite concerns by a number of watchdog and other groups, local government officials are allowing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use the new updated “wet method” to take down one building in the now vacant Oak Hollow Apartment complex. Those opposed to the “experiment” have not been able to garner enough support to stop the project, notes an article in the Dallas Morning News.

“A successful test could help pave the way for federal approval of the first new asbestos abatement method in decades and potentially make it cheaper to demolish buildings that have become eyesores and neighborhood dangers nationwide,” the article points out.

However, opponents fear that people in this East Fort Worth neighborhood will be exposed to escaping asbestos fibers, which can eventually cause lung ailments. Most experts believe that the exposure will not be enough to cause concern. Others think the local government is allowing the experiment because the neighborhood is largely made up of minorities.

At a news conference Monday, members of the International Association of Heat & Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers said they had no doubt that the proposed demolition would release asbestos fibers into the air and that concerns them.

“You’re going to have a whole new generation of people who are going to be sick” if the technique becomes widely used, said Terry Lynch, the union’s at-large vice president.

Freddy Polanco, a peer review panelist and member of the Asbestos Advisory Committee for the Texas Department of Health, said this method “has the potential to be safe,” but he’s concerned that if it’s approved for widespread use, contractors who take shortcuts would put people at risk. He also had issues with the cost savings estimated.

“The EPA seems to inflate the cost of the standard NESHAP method to show that this alternative method is a fiscal way to do it,” he said.

The Arizona Geological Survey (AGS) reports that there is no evidence of asbestos associated with mining operations in the Agua Fria River bed. The AGS was called in to investigate and explore the area because the Maricopa County Mining District Recommendation Committee worried that sand and gravel mines may be sending asbestos into the air.

According to an article in the Arizona Republic, Mimi Diaz of the AGS told members of the committee last week that six kinds of minerals that form long, fibrous crystals fall into the category of asbestos and “not all are bad and cause lung cancer.” Absolutely none of those crystals was found in the Agua Fria basin, she added.

One member of the committee said that area residents are concerned that mining companies are crushing used concrete that might contain asbestos. There are more than 20 mining operations in the Agua Fria, which is near communities such as Surprise and Sun City.

“Any time you demolish a building, you have to do an asbestos survey,” said board Chairman Frank Mendola. “If you find it, it has to be removed from the building and the material is sent to an asbestos landfill.”

Diaz explained that when companies manufacture concrete, it is generally transported to a building site within 20 miles because of the expensive cost of trucking it. So, if there no asbestos in the Agua Fria, the concrete from it is clean, she said.

“People who have gotten sick off asbestos had an occupational exposure to it,” Diaz said. “They are the ones who are sick, not the ones who drive by it or live by it.”

Arizona has a fairly low rate of asbestos deaths, coming in at number 31 of the 50 states in number of asbestos-related deaths annually.